I am officially adding the Finger Lakes region of New York
to my list of wine areas that I need to visit. I have never been there and, up
until today, I have never even had a wine from that region. Holy Cow! I’ve been
missing out. What was it that made me put New York on my life’s itinerary? The
wine in the title: Boundary Breaks Reserve Riesling.
Boundary Breaks is close to Lodi, New York. The vineyard is
situated on a fertile plot of land that sits on the eastern shore of Seneca
Lake. A wicked long time ago, glaciers etched the landscape in that area
producing deep trenches that water still flows through today. The vineyard sits
in between a couple of these “breaks” that cut through the terrain. The cooler
climate in this area lends itself to growing flavor-packed Riesling grapes and
perfumed Gewurztraminer.
The multi-generational crew at Boundary Breaks has taken
great pains to figure out which grapevines grow in which soils in the
vineyards. They have several Geisenheim clones from the Geisenheim Grape
Breeding Institute in Rheingau. The uber-smart people there have created some
wonderful hybrids and clones of vines from all over the place. The grapevines
that Boundary Breaks chose were from Neustadt in central Germany. The
accumulated knowledge of everyone’s trials and errors resulted in one of the
best Rieslings I’ve ever had; No. 198 Reserve Riesling.
The 198 is the clone from which this single vineyard
Riesling was made. Its color was pretty much like every other Riesling, a soft,
pale yellow. That’s where the similarities ran out. Unlike some of the
Rieslings I’ve tried in the past, this one didn’t have an oily feel or a
cloying sweetness. It was clean, slightly crisp and completely delicious. I
tasted mild fruits like passion fruit and Porter peach. It might sound weird,
but I tasted a honeyed tea on the finish. I haven’t tried all the Rieslings in
the world but I’ve tried a heckuva lot of them and this was as close to perfect
as I’ve tasted. I would drink this with spicy Thai food, sushi, Buffalo wings,
bagels with lox and cream cheese, or a fruit-based dessert like pie. This was truly
a world class wine from a hopefully up and coming wine region and vineyard.
Cheers.
Go see more of these folks at boundarybreaks.com
Go see what else is going on at www.talkingsimian.com
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